Matt Trowbridge: Chicago Bears show they are tough, but not smart

Sunday

Nov 10, 2013 at 8:13 PMNov 10, 2013 at 8:13 PM

By Matt TrowbridgeRockford Register Star

CHICAGO — Forgive the Bears. They are not used to having one good quarterback, let alone two.

Quarterbacks have played through far worse injuries than Jay Cutler's tender groin Sunday. Cutler (21-for-40 for 250 yards) obviously could play, but that doesn't mean he should have played. Not with Josh McCown on hand.

McCown didn't replace Cutler until the final 2:17 Sunday. He then led Chicago on a 74-yard touchdown drive, but failed on two tries for a two-point conversion in a 21-19 loss to Detroit.

The Bears are confused who should play quarterback with a referendum on Cutler's toughness.

"I am proud of him," said Brandon Marshall, who had 139 yards receiving and two touchdowns, one each from Cutler and McCown. "He was a soldier today. Probably from the second drive on, he had all kinds of things going on from the waist down."

"I am so dang proud of him," McCown said. "I know how bad he was hurting."

Cutler, who also rolled his ankle in the second quarter, couldn't move. "I felt really restricted in the pocket."

But he said he owed it to his line to play. "More than anything, I wanted to stay in there for those guys," Cutler said.

More than anything, the decision on who should quarterback the Bears should have been about who was the best player on this day in a showdown for first place in the NFC North.

Coach Marc Trestman said the Bears took out any plays that would require Cutler to move in the pocket, then pulled him in the final two minutes because he knew then that scrambling would be required.

It was. McCown stepped up and bought extra time on his 11-yard TD pass to Marshall that almost saved the game.

Marshall said Jay Cutler could not have made that throw.

And Trestman admitted that a healthy Cutler (or McCown) could have scrambled on third down for a conversion on the final drive before that one.

"That's the price you pay for his inability to move," Trestman said. "But we also thought he was the right guy back there to make a throw at the right time."

Like a perfect throw to Alshon Jeffery that would have given the Bears a lead in the fourth quarter if replay hadn't overturned the catch and left Chicago trailing 14-13 after a field goal.

Even a limping Cutler was adequate. "I didn't want to take him out until he didn't think he could do the job," Trestman said.

For Cutler, that meant staying in until he stunk.

"I didn't want to get to a point where I was hurting us more than I was helping us," Cutler said.

He didn't. But he wasn't helping much, either. Not like McCown, who has a 103.2 passer rating in parts of three games. That doesn't matter to the Bears. Their minds are made up.

"There's not a lot of Jay Cutlers walking the streets," Marshall said. "I don't care how great Josh McCown does — he's awesome; I don't think you could ask for a better No. 2 — but Jay Cutler is our quarterback and no one can lead our team better than he can."

But this was never about replacing Jay Cutler. It should have been simply about winning a football game. The Bears lost Sunday because they forgot about winning and focused on rank, loyalty and toughness.